The Play’s the Thing: Summer Theater Camps

“Hey kids, let’s put on a show in the barn” was OK in Mickey Rooney’s day, but it’s no longer what kids in the country say if they love theater. Instead, they say, “Mom, can I go to camp?” Fortunately, many of the theater companies in our region offer summer classes and workshops, and they are filling up quickly. Here’s a round-up of what’s being offered. (If we’ve omitted a nearby theater-oriented day camp, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post so we can add it to the list.)

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It’s Spring, Baby: Hancock Shaker Village Welcomes the Season

It’s a(nother) breezy day in Berkshire County; the sun shines deceptively bright while the wind whips over the tops of long gone seed heads and through the branches of trees just beginning to bud. Even within the confines of the famous Round Barn at Hancock Shaker Village, the air is drafty. But, time and Mother Nature wait for no man (or weather) and despite the cool temperatures, everything is on schedule at the farm, according to the Village’s longtime farm and facilities director Bill Mangiardi.

“The animals know when it’s time, and they don’t wait for warmer weather,” he says, hovering over a pair of feisty young oxen. “We have more than a half-dozen lambs that are growing by the minute.”

One such lamb, just 12 hours old, is sunning himself in a thin beam of light that shines into his pen. He shivers, his soft fur is just a dusting of white wool at this point, while his mother looks protectively on. Other, older (by about a day or two) lambs frolic in the pen, to the annoyance of the somewhat grumpy ewes. Spring has clearly sprung in the region. The annual Baby Animals on the Shaker Farm kicks (or bleats) off on Saturday, April 13, and runs through May 5. While it is billed as a kid-focused outing that unofficially marks the opening of the Village for the season, the sight of greedy piglets vying for milk and pint-sized goats chomping on hay lights up just about any face.

“The adults can’t help but smile,” Mangiardi says, lifting a downy lamb. “Seeing all these babies, all this new life, it’s so reassuring. And really, where else can children interact with baby animals. I own a farm and I know, as a farmer, the last thing I want is for people to show up and start petting my animals. It’s a rare opportunity, for everyone, to be able to make that connection and be on a working farm.”

“A working farm” might be an understatement based on what is on the roster for Hancock Shaker’s 2013 season. In addition to the cuddly harbingers of spring, the Village is hosting a plethora of events, many of them devoted to the mission of sustainability (and living history). Outstanding in the Field, a 150-guest annual locavore eating extravaganza, will be held in the gardens this coming September. The Village will be the start point for the Boston Bicycle Tour and a 50-mile Ultramarathon, as well the high-end hub of an auction featuring part two of the McCue Shaker Collection. A fundraising gala slated for mid-August will include a farm-to-table dinner and, according to HSV’s president Linda Steigleder, “we’re going to change how we do it this year, to be more attractive to young audiences. There’s going to be a different kind of music and a popular guest chef. We’re coming up with different ways to intersect with the community.”

Youth, not to mention new beginnings, seems to be an underlying theme marking this season’s focus. In addition to the manual menagerie of goings on – sheep-shearing, bee-keeping, timber-framing, iron-working – much has been happening “behind the screen” so to speak, with the opening up of HSV’s virtual presence and the development of micro-sites; searchable databases that include the museum’s collection and records of former Village residents; online exhibitions; and a soon-to-be favorite: The Chicken Lady blog. In the same spirit as Greenhorns, 23-year-old Laura Field, who just moved to a 130-acre farm in Richmond, shares her musings of life on the farm, dealing with stubborn oxen, and raising rowdy chickens (among other tasks).

“We need young farmers. And smart farmers,” Mangiardi says. “Yes, we have a new greenhouse now, yes, we have raised beds and solar panels and are working on a compost pad. These are smart farm practices, and it brings everything full circle. The Shakers were smart farmers, we’re just doing what they did.” —Nichole Dupont

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Eileen and Marc Rosenthal to Read I’ll Save You Bobo!

When her son was a small boy—he’s now 25—Lenox-based picture book author Eileen Rosenthal constantly made up stories to tell him. It’s no surprise, then, that this former book designer and ardent picture book fan went a step further with Willy—the fictional child in her delightful tales about a boy and his sock monkey, Bobo. And she found a willing and able collaborator close by – under her own roof.

In 2011, Simon & Schuster published I Must Have Bobo!, by Eileen Rosenthal, with illustrations by her husband Marc Rosenthal. The book charmed children and parents with its whimsical portrayal of the contest between Willy and his nemesis, Earl the cat, over Bobo. The Rosenthals followed up with this year’s sequel, I’ll Save You Bobo!, and Marc is currently finishing up illustrations for the third book of the series.

Eileen explains how the couple began to collaborate on the Bobo books: “We both work at home, where we each inhabit different spots in the house. We schedule coffee shop dates twice a week to go over workaday matters. That way, work doesn’t spill over into the evening.” During one such date, Eileen told Marc about the characters she was mulling, Willy and Bobo. “As I told him the story, he started doodling. He nailed Bobo right away.” Earl the cat came next.

The initial Bobo story was “play,” Eileen says. “We edited the story on our coffee breaks together and Marc put a little dummy together and took it along to a meeting with his publisher in New York. He also showed it to his agent, which turned out to be a smart move.” Marc adds, “My editor at Harper [publisher of Marc’s previous children’s book, Archie and the Pirates] really liked it. But it ended up in a bidding war and Simon & Schuster took it on.”

Their collaboration is fitting; the pair met at work, when Marc was an illustrator in Milton Glaser’s studio. Eileen, then an art student, came to the office as a “gopher” willing to do all the office tasks. The staff saw her potential and encouraged her to pursue graphic design. Meanwhile, Glaser was extremely supportive of Marc’s career and over time, Marc left the studio to do freelance work. His editorial work and illustrations—some featured by the Society of Illustrators, appear regularly in various publications, including The New Yorker. These days, though, he says, “Kids’ books feel like my main direction.”

On Thursday August 23, the Rosenthals will read I’ll Save You Bobo! at the Lenox Library. Marc will be drawing Bobo and there will be an arts and crafts “draw your own book” activity. Eileen made a Bobo doll she brings to readings. “My Bobo doesn’t have a shirt. I love how this provides a leaping off point for kids when they make their own books; they imagine what might have happened to Bobo’s shirt.” — Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser

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From WPA to Facebook Wall: Images of Hancock Shaker Village

Caps: Objects like these net caps and wooden box were photographed to capture the unique Shaker design aesthetic for the Index of American Design. Photograph by Noel Vicentini 1936.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘Tis the gift to be free.
So goes the Shaker song. What could be a better influence for young photographers today (with all their newfangled digital thingamabobs) than the almost modernisticially austere photographs by Noel Vicentini, on display at the Hancock Shaker Village exhibition, A Promising Venture: Shaker Photographs from the WPA, running now through October 2013? How about a photography contest for teenagers, using Hancock Shaker Village as a springboard for the imagination.

Vicentini created his photographs in 1935-36 for the Index of American Design, one of a multitude of remarkable arts initiatives by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, started during another time of national economic crisis. Unseen since the early 1940s, the photographs were found collecting dust in the archives by Village curator Lesley Herzberg, three years ago.

The confluence of Shaker design and the WPA’s hiring of Vicentini to document it — part of a cataloguing project that in and of itself was a form of cultural archaeology way ahead of its time — is surely a great way to train the eye (and fill in some of the blanks) of today’s teenagers while at the same time engaging them in an activity they enjoy — the snapping of photos. As result, the Village is holding a summer-long photography contest for entrants between the ages of 13 and 17, who will take photographs of Hancock Shaker Village’s landscape, buildings or interiors on their favored equipment — a smart phone or digital camera — with winning entries to be displayed on the Village’s Facebook page and website.

“We hope the contest will inspire teens to really look at photographers’ images and to regard the Village in new ways,” Herzberg says, “because there’s so much to see here. We thought we’d take something teens do already and encourage them to focus their lenses and their eyes upon American design.”

Herzberg hopes her sense of discovery, in unearthing Vicentini’s images, is one that teenagers will feel when they train their modern lenses on the Village. The exhibition, A Promising Venture, offers the chance to see Shakers and their legacy through Vicentini’s eyes. Soon enough, you’ll have access to some as-yet undiscovered visions: Hancock Shaker Village as seen through fresh (young) ones.

Entries may be submitted through the end of August and winners will be announced at the Village’s Country Fair, September 29th. Along with Village curator Herzberg, Berkshire Eagle photographers Ben Garver and Susan Geller will serve as judges for the contest. The first place winner will be awarded a slot in Ben Garver’s 2013 Photographing the City of Peace workshop.
—Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser

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MASS MoCA Screens Red Tails on the Really Big Screen

If you’re a frequent flyer—or a pilot—in our region, you know that among the most appealing attributes of North Adams’ Harriman-West Airport are the incredible vistas afforded by its location. “The topography and views are stunning,” says Joe Thompson, director of MASS MoCA, pictured below with artist Guy Ben-Ner in Thompson’s Grumann Tiger, which he hangers at Harriman-West. “From the airport, the sight of Mount Greylock’s north slope awes.”

If you were a recreational pilot and a museum director who happened to have among your many job responsibilities something like “movie presenter,” you might just look at a 90’x22’ hangar door at that airport and think, “really big movie screen.” It might even strike you that the hangar door could well be the largest screen in the entire country. At least that’s the thought that crossed Thompson’s mind. “It’s surely the largest screen in the county,” asserts Thompson, and for the second-consecutive year MASS MoCA and Harriman-West airport are teaming up to use that hangar door/movie screen by presenting a really big aviation-themed show. On Tuesday, July 3, MASS MoCA presents Red Tails, a feature film that tells the story of a group of African-American pilots who gained fame as the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

About 400 people attended last year’s flying-related collaboration between the museum and airport, which featured a screening of The Great Waldo Pepper, with period airplanes on view. This year, the first 100 kids to arrive will receive Balsa wood gliders so they can compete in a flying competition before the onscreen action begins. Prizes will be given for longest flight, best acrobatics, and worst crash. There will be a selection of vintage prop planes on display, and flying cartoons will screen before the feature film begins. Seating is on the tarmac. It’s a BYOC affair—Bring Your Own Chair (or blankets).

The concept behind the event is to air a family-friendly film with aviation history as subject matter.Red Tails tells the story of the brave, valiant servicemen of the 33rd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Having endured racist attitudes throughout the recruitment and training process for the Tuskegee training program, this squadron of African-American fighter pilots was finally allowed into combat in Italy in 1944.

Released this year in January and directed by Anthony Hemingway, Red Tails is highly regarded for telling an untold story of military history, but from the start there were doubts about the film’s ability to reach a wide audience. George Lucas, the film’s executive producer, doggedly championed the film; it took him two decade to shepherd John Ridley’s script into production. The film stars Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Thompson sees this event not only as a family-friendly summer night out at an aviation-related movie, but also as a way to show off a major renovation (nearly $7 million) to the airport that he views as a point of civic pride. The airport has a gracious, spacious lawn between two runways, where kids can run around and enjoy themselves—at least when planes aren’t coming in for a landing.

Though Harriman-West is an important community resource, Thompson notes, in the post 9/11 world, the airport has become less accessible to non-flyers. “There were many more natural connections between the airport and its neighbors,” he reflects. “For this event, to which people arrive by carload, on foot, and even by air, there’s an added benefit of opening the airport up for a night.” If you do plan to fly in, be there before 6:30 p.m., when the airport closes for movie night. —Sarah Buttenweiser

Movie at the Airport: Red TailsPresented by MASS MoCA at Harriman-West Airport
Tuesday, July 3, 8:30 p.m; gates open at 7 p.m.; flying cartoons begin about 8:15 p.m.
Admission: $7 adults; $3 for children under 12; $14 per carload
Free admission for those arriving by plane; land before 6:30 p.m.
Hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, snacks, soft drinks, beer, and wine available for sale.
Rain date: Friday, July 6

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Take Me Out to the Golf Course

by Ed Tivnan

Recent surveys reveal that new golfers are exiting the game as fast as they entered, particularly women and kids. Even longtime golf fanatics are putting their clubs into the garage at an alarming rate, mainly due to the frustrations and downright humiliation of not being able to hit that little, stationary ball far and straight every single time.

Here’s the only golf tip you need to know that will improve your enjoyment of the game: Take Lessons. If Tiger Woods needs a “swing coach,” then any struggling and frustrated golfer who will not spend the price of a new high-tech driver for lessons from a teaching professional deserves his misery. And if you have kids or grandkids you’d like to get onto the course, I have a more cost-effective solution. In fact, how does FREE sound to you—as in, a week of free golf lessons? With a top teaching professional. At the region’s most beautiful practice range, where they have little pyramids of golf balls, just like the PGA Tour.

For more than 20 years, the Columbia Golf & Country Club, a private course on Rt. 217 in Claverack, NY, has offered a week-long Junior Golf Program for kids aged 5 to 16. All you have to do is sign up in advance and get the kids to club at 8 a.m., then pick them up at 10. Mark Levesque, Columbia’s head pro, and his assistants will take it from there, introducing the kids to the game of golf, from the fundamentals of the swing to course etiquette.

“The goal is to make it fun in creative ways—with games and contests,” explains Levesque, a Lenox native who has served as a teaching pro at a number of the region’s best-known courses—Cranwell Resort, Pittsfield’s Skyline Country Club, Egremont Country Club, Great Barrington’s Wyantenuck. In 2005, he moved across the state line to Columbia. To spark his students’ competitive fires, he divides the kids into teams, Yankees v. Red Sox, for example, then challenges them to “step up to the plate” and hit the ball between pre-determined targets to earn a run for their team; hitting it “out of bounds” is an out. On the putting green, the kids play a “survivor contest,” trying to get their ball closest to the hole.

As the kids get more comfortable hitting balls, Levesque gets them onto a mini golf course set up on the practice range—only 50 yards to a hole that is much larger than the standard 4.25 inch version. On the final day of the clinic, there is an afternoon “parent-child tournament,” when the kids get the opportunity to play on the 6,200 yard Columbia course. “We have a time limit of one hour and 45 minutes,” says Levesque, “and then we have a huge barbecue.”

The clinic’s prime emphasis is getting kids addicted to the joys of golf. (They will have the rest of their lives to learn the pain and cruelties of the game.) And Levesque has plenty of evidence that the program works. Last summer, 55 kids participated—more than twice the number from the year before. Not only do many kids return every summer, but alumni have become successful high school and junior golfers in the area; some are preparing for careers in the golf business. Levesque points proudly to one of the camp’s grads, Stephanie Bednar (left), who was the number one player on the Hudson High golf team her senior year. She won Columbia’s Ladies’ championship in 2008 and 2009, the same year she was “player of the year” in the 16-18 group in the PGA’s Junior Program for Northeast New York. That kind of play earned Stephanie a golf scholarship at Central Connecticut State University, where she just finished her sophomore year. “I still take regular lessons from Mark,” says Stephanie, who will be assisting Levesque with the Junior program this summer.

“The clinic got me hooked on golf,” recalls Kevin Keyser, who began the summer program at 8 years old at the suggestion of an uncle who was a member of the club. As soon as that first week was over, Kevin proceeded to turn his buddies onto hitting the little ball so he would have someone to play with. “My parents would drop me off at the course at nine in the morning and pick me up at 6:30 p.m.,” says Keyser, who played on the golf team at Hudson High School and is now a senior in the “professional golf management program” at SUNY Delhi, where he is preparing for a career as a golf pro. He will also be working with the junior golfers this summer.

Why is this program free? “It always has been,” according to Levesque. But the Columbia pro also has his eye on the future: “If kids fall in love with golf, they’ll keep playing and get their friends interested, and then maybe their parents will want to play,” says the pro, who is now mapping out a grand strategy to take his program into public school systems in the area. His goal: to reverse those numbers of people quitting the game he loves.

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Plenty of Family Fun at Pittsfield’s 250th Anniversary Kickoff

April 29 and 30, May 1
The city of Pittsfield kicks off a celebration of its 250th birthday with a weekend full of family friendly events, most of them free. The activities start at noon on Friday with an Arbor Day Celebration at Park Square. Later in the evening, the official opening ceremonies will be held in front of city hall and include lots of music and singing. Continue to dance into the night with your choice of genres: country music with County Line band at South Church, 110 South Street; classic rock with DJ John Sottile at the Masonic Temple on South Street; or the dance band at United Cerebral Palsy benefit at Crowne Plaza.

Saturday’s events include a birthday party at Berkshire Museum (see entry on Kids’ page), historic exhibits and a screening of the film Glory. On Sunday, enjoy the Baby Animals program at Hancock Shaker Village from 10 a.m. to noon for free. The weekend ends with the Boston Symphony Orchestra presenting Tanglewood Music Center Fellows in a special chamber music concert at the Colonial Theatre. For a comprehensive list of events and times, visit the event website.

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Take Youngsters on a Spring Walk at Hawthorne Valley

April 29 @ 8 - 9:15 a.m.
Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School kindergarten welcomes parents and children age 3-6 to join them on a Spring Morning Walk through forest, field and farm. Meet the early childhood teachers and experience the extraordinary beauty of the 400-acre campus in the Harlemville section of Ghent. Look for signs of spring and visit the baby animals.

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Rockwell Museum Family Festival Follows Animation Process

April 30 @ 1 to 4 p.m.
Join illustrator Elwood H. Smith and animator Brian Hoard for Family Festival Day Moving Pictures! The Art of Animation with Elwood Smith and Brian Hoard, a fascinating look at their process of bringing drawings to life. Afterwards, you have the chance to create simple animations of your own.

Hatman Serenade, Green Monkeys and Sweet Dreams are just some of the wild collaborative productions that Smith and Hoard will share. The event is free with museum admission.

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Museum Celebrates Pittsfield’s 250th with Family Day

April 30 @ 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
As part of the kickoff weekend celebrating the 250th anniversary of Pittsfield, Saturday is a Family Day at Berkshire Museum, featuring free admission all day for Berkshire County residents. Popular family entertainer David Grover will perform sets at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., with birthday cake available in between, at approximately 2 p.m.Face painting will also be part of the fun between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

On display at the museum are exhibitions like Pittsfield 250, featuring artwork and artifacts telling the colorful history of Pittsfield; and MC Escher: Seeing the Unseen, a collection of artwork and ephemera from throughout the career of the eminently popular artist, including preparatory sketches, animations of prints, and interactive stations. Pittsfield 250 is on view through May 8; MC Escher: Seeing the Unseen is on view through May 22.